cir. annum Numa Pompilii, k 7 * How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth! Nah. i. 15; Rom. x. 15.- Psa. xciii. 1; xcvi. 10; xcvii, 1. force nor emphasis as a repetition; it only embarrasses the construction and the sense. It was not in the copies from which the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate were translated; it was not in the copy of the Septuagint from which the Arabic was translated; but in the Aldine and Complutensian editions dia Touro is repeated; probably so corrected, in order to make it conformable with the Hebrew text. I am he that doth speak—“I am he, JEHOVAH, that promised"] For & hu, the Bodleian MS. and another have Yehovah; "For I am JEHOVAH that promised; and another ancient MS. adds nn Yehovah The addition of JEHOVAH seems to be right in consequence of what was said in the preceding line, "My people shall know my name.' .hu הוא after Verse 7. How beautiful] The watchmen discover afar off, on the mountains, the messenger bringing the expected and much-wished-for news of the deliverance from the Babylonish captivity. They immediately spread the joyful tidings, ver. 8, and with a loud voice proclaim that JEHOVAH is returning to Zion, to resume his residence on his holy mountain, which for some time he seemed to have deserted. This is the literal sense of the place. "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the joyful messenger," is an expression highly poetical: for, how welcome is his arrival! how agreeable are the tidings which he brings! Nahum, chap. i. 15, who is generally supposed to have lived after Isaiah, has manifestly taken from him this very pleasing image; but the imitation does not equal the beauty of the original :— Gospel foretold. 8 Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion.. 9 Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem. Chap. li. 3. 期 n Chap. xlviii. 20. apostles, we may rest assured that the preachers of the Gospel are particularly intended. Mountains are put for the whole land of Judea, where the Gospel was first preached. There seems to be an allusion to a battle fought, and the messengers coming to announce the victory, which was so decisive that a peace was the consequence, and the king's throne established in the land. There appear to have been two sorts of messengers among the Jews; one sort always employed to bring evil tidings; the other to bring good. The names also and persons of these different messengers appear to have been well known; so that at a distance they' could tell, from seeing the messenger, what sort of tidings he was bringing. See a case in point, 2 Sam. xviii. 19-27. Ahimaaz and Cushi running to bring tidings of the defeat of Absalom and his rebel army. Ahimaaz is a GOOD man, and bringeth GOOD tidings. Verse 8. Thy watchmen lift up the voice-" All thy watchmen lift up their voice"] There is a difficulty in the construction of this place which, I think, none of the ancient versions or modern interpreters have cleared up satisfactorily. Rendered word for word it stands thus: "The voice of thy watchmen: they lift up their voice." The sense of the first member, considered as elliptical, is variously supplied by various expositors; by none, as it seems to me, in any way that is easy and natural. I am persuaded there is a mistake in the present text, and that the true reading is so col tsophayich, all thy watchmen, instead of Typ kol tsophayich, the voice of thy watchmen. The mistake was easy from the similitude in sound of the two letters caph and p koph. And in one MS. “Behold upon the mountain the feet of the joyful the p koph is upon a rasure. This correction perfectly messenger, Of him that announceth peace! Celebrate, O Judah, thy festivals; perform thy vows: rectifies the sense and the construction.-L. They shall see eye to eye] May not this be applied to the prophets and apostles; the one predicting, and the other discovering in the prediction the truth of the prophecy. The meaning of both Testaments is best understood by bringing them face to face. But it must at the same time be observed that Isaiah's subject is infinitely more interesting and more sublime When the Lord shall bring again Zion-"When than that of Nahum; the latter denounces the destruc- JEHOVAH returneth to Zion"] So the Chaldee: tion of the capital of the Assyrian empire, the most cad yethib shechinteih letsiyon, formidable enemy of Judah; the ideas of the former" when he shall place the shechinah in Zion." God are in their full extent evangelical; and accordingly is considered as having deserted his people during the St. Paul has, with the utmost propriety, applied this captivity; and at the restoration, as returning himself passage to the preaching of the Gospel, Rom. x. 15. with them to Zion, his former habitation. See Psa. The joyful tidings here to be proclaimed, "Thy God, Ix. 1; Isa. xl. 9, and note. O-Zion, reigneth," are the same that John the Baptist, the messenger of Christ, and Christ himself, published: "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." Verse 9. He hath redeemed Jerusalem-" He hath redeemed Israel."] For the word wir yerushalaim, which occurs the second time in this verse, MS. BodFrom the use made of this by our Lord and the leian and another read yisrael. It is upon a rasure in a third; and left unpointed at first, as suspected, in a fourth. It was an easy mistake, by the transcriber casting his eye on the line above: and the propriety of the correction, both in regard to sense and elegance, is evident. Verse 11. Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence] The Prophet Jeremiah seems to have had his eye on this passage of Isaiah, and to have applied it to a subject directly opposite. It is here addressed by the prophet in a way of encouragement and exhortation to the Jews coming out of Babylon. Jeremiah has given it a different turn, and has thrown it out, as a reproach of the heathen upon the Jews when they were driven from Jerusalem into captivity:“Depart; ye are polluted, depart; depart ye, for bear to touch. Of the metrical distribution of these lines, see the Prelim. Dissert., p. lviii. note. Verse 13. My servant shall deal prudently] yaskil, shall prosper, or act prosperously. The subject of Isaiah's prophecy, from the fortieth chapter inclusive, has hitherto been, in general, the deliverance of the people of God. This includes in it three distinct parts; which, however, have a close connexion with one another; that is, 1. The deliverance of the Jews from the captivity of Babylon; 2. The deliverance of the Gentiles from their miserable state of ignorance and idolatry; and, 3. The deliverance of mankind from the captivity of sin and death. These three subjects are subordinate to one another; and the two latter are shadowed out under the image of the former. They are covered by it as by a veil; which however is transparent, and suffers them to appear through it. Cyrus is expressly named as the immediate agent of God in effecting the first deliverance. A greater person is spoken of as the Agent who is to effect the two latter deliverances, called the servant, the elect, of God, in whom his soul delighteth; Israel, in whom God will be glorified. Now these three subjects have a very near relation to one another; for as the Agent who was to effect the two latter deliverances,—that is, the Messiah, was to be born a Jew, with particular limitations of time, family, and other circumstances; the first deliverance was necessary in the order of providence, and according to the determinate counsel of God, to the accomplishment of the two latter deliverances; and the second deliverance was necessary to the third, or rather was involved in it, and made an of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD. 12 For ye shall not go with haste, nor go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rereward. 13 Behold, Mic: ii. 13. W my servant shall deal pru Num. x. 25; chap. lviii, 8; see Exod. xiv. 19. Heb. gather you up. w Chap. xlii. 1. Or, prosper; chap. liii. 10; Jer. xxiii. 5. essential part of it. This being the case, Isaiah has not treated the three subjects as quite distinct and separate in a methodical and orderly manner, like a philosopher or á logician, but has taken them in their connective view. He has handled them as a prophet and a poet; he has allegorized the former, and under the image of it has shadowed out the two latter : he has thrown them all together, has mixed one with another, has passed from this to that with rapid transitions, and has painted the whole with the strongest and boldest imagery. The restoration of the Jews from captivity, the call of the Gentiles, the redemption by Messiah, have hitherto been handled interchangeably and alternately. Babylon has hitherto been kept pretty much in sight; at the same time, that strong intimations of something much greater have frequently been thrown in. But here Babylon is at once dropped, and I think hardly ever comes in sight again; unless perhaps in chap. lv. 12, and lvii. 14. The prophet's. views are almost wholly engrossed by the superior part of his subject. He introduces the Messiah as appearing at first in the lowest state of humiliation, which he had just touched upon before, (chap. 1. 5, 6,) and obviates the offence which would be occasioned by it, by declaring the important and necessary cause of it, and foreshowing the glory which should follow it. This seems to me to be the nature and the true design of this part of Isaiah's prophecies; and this view of them seems to afford the best method of resolving difficulties, in which expositors are frequently engaged, being much divided between what is called the literal and the mystical sense, not very properly; for the mystical or spiritual sense is very often the most literal sense of all. Abarbanel seems to have had an idea of this kind, as he is quoted by Vitringa on chap. xlix. 1, who thus represents his sentiments: Censet Abarbanel prophetam hic transitum facere a liberatione ex exilio Babylonico ad liberationem ex exilio Romano; et, quod hic animadversu dignum est, observat liberationem ex exilio Babylonico esse oth veraayah, signum et argumentum liberationis futuræ ; atque adeo orationem prophetæ de duabus hisce liberationibus in superioribus concionibus sæpe inter se permisceri. Verba ejus: "Et propterea verba, sive res, in prophetia superiore inter se permixtæ occurrunt; modo de liberatione Babylonica, modo de liberatione extrema accipiendæ, ut orationis necessitas exigit." Nullum hic vitium, nisi quod redemptionem veram et spiritualem a Messia vero Jesu adductam, non agnoscat. "Abarbanel supposes that the prophet here makes a transition from the deliver Olymp. XVII. 1. cir. annum Numa Pompilii, R. Roman., 4. at thee; his visage was z a sufferings of Messiah. 15 So shall he sprinkle many B. C. cir. 712. nations; the kings shall shut Olymp. XVII. 1. cir. annum 14 As many were astonished their mouths at him: for that Numa Pompilii, SO which had not been told them R. Roman., 4. marred more than any man, and his form shall they see; and that which they had not more than the sons of men. heard shall they consider.. y Phil. ii. 9. Psa. xxii. 6, 7; chap. liii. 2, 3. Ezek. Chap. xlix. 7, 23.xxxvi. 25; Acts ii. 33; Heb. ix. 13, 14. ance from the Babylonish captivity to the deliverance from the Roman captivity; and (which is worthy of particular note) he observes that the deliverance from the Babylonish captivity is a sign and pledge of the future redemption; and that on this account it is we find in the preceding prophecies the circumstances of the two captivities intimately blended together. His words are the following: And, therefore, the words or subjects in the foregoing prophecy are very much intermixed; in one passage the redemption from the Babylonish captivity being treated of, in another the redemption from the general dispersion, as may be collected from the obvious import of the words.' No fault can be found with the above remark, except that the true and spiritual redemption procured by Jesus the Messiah is not acknowledged."——L. .alair עליו Verse 14. As many were astonished at thee-"As many were astonished at him"] For Thy aleicha read So the Syriac, Chaldee, and Vulgate in a MS.; and so likewise two ancient MSS. His visage was so marred more than any man] Most interpreters understand this of the indignities offered to our blessed Lord: but Kimchi gives it another turn, and says, "It means the Jewish people, who are considered by most nations as having an appearance different from all the people of the earth.". Poor Jews! they have in general a very disagreeable look, partly affected, and partly through neglect of neatness and cleanliness. Most Christians think they carry the impress of their reprobation on every feature of their However this may be, it should never be forgotten that the greatest men that ever flourished as kings, judges, magistrates, lawgivers, heroes, and poets, were of Jewish extraction.. Isaiah was a Jew; so was Paul; and so was JESUS of Nazareth. face. C Chap. Iv. 5; Rom. xv. 21; xvi. 25, 26; sion of "dropping the word." But the same objection "I find in my papers the same conjecture which Dr. Durell made from avpadovas in the Septuagint. And it may be added that in chazah is used to express 'looking on any thing with admiration,' Psa. xi. 7; xvii: 15; xxvii. 4; lxiii. 2; Cant. vi. 13. It is particularly applied to 'looking on God,' Exod. xxiv. 11, and Job xix. 26. Gisbert Cuper, in Observ.. lib. ii. 1, though treating on another subject, has some observations which show how nearly gaw and Savuaw are allied, which, with the peculiar sense of the verb in chazah above noted, add to the probability of savuadovrai being the version of m yechezu in the text: οἱ δε νυ λαοι Παντες ες αυτόν δρωσι. Hesiod., id est, cum veneratione quadam admirantur. Hinc spaw et Ειτα παύσονται οἱ Javuaw junxit Themistius Or. i. ανθρωποι προς σε μονον δρώντες, και σε μονον θαύμαζον ES. Theophrastus in Charact. c. 3. Evdvun is año BRETOUGIV 815 de oi avôpwo. Hence the rendering of this verse seems to be "So many nations shall look on him with admiration; Kings shall stop their mouths" DR. JUBB. Does not sprinkling the nations refer to the conversion and baptism of the Gentiles? Many nations shall become proselytes to his religion. Verse 15. So shall he sprinkle many nations] I retain the common rendering, though I am by no means Kings shall shut their mouths at him] His Gospel satisfied with it. "yazzeh, frequent in the law, shall so prevail that all opposition shall be finally overmeans only to sprinkle: but the water sprinkled is the come; and kings and potentates shall be overwhelmed accusative case; the thing on which has y al or with confusion, and become speechless before the docel. Cavadovṛai, ó, makes the best apodosis. antrines of his truth. When they hear these declared yenahag would do. 17 yinharu is used chap. ii. 2, they shall attentively consider them, and their convicJer. xxxi. 12, chap. li. 14, but is unlike. 'Kings shall tion of their truth shall be the consequence. shut,' &c., is good, but seems to want a first part.”SECKER. Munster translates it, faciet loqui, (de se ;) and in his note thus explains it: yazzeh proprie significat spargere et stillas disseminare; hic vero capitur pro loqui, et verbum disseminare. "yazzeh properly signifies to sprinkle, and to scatter about drops; but it here means to speak, and to disseminate the word." This is pretty much as the Rabbins Kimchi and Sal. ben Melec explain it, referring to the expres For that which had not been told them] The mystery of the Gospel so long concealed. See Rom. xv. 21; xvi. 25. Shall they see] With the eyes of their faith; God enlightening both organ and object. And that which they had not heard] The redemption of the world by Jesus Christ; the conversion of the Gentiles, and making them one flock with the converted Jews.-TRAPP. The humiliation and CHAP. LIII. sufferings of the Messiah. CHAPTER LIII. This chapter foretells the sufferings of the Messiah, the end for which he was to die, and the advantages resulting to mankind from that illustrious event. It begins with a complaint of the infidelity of the Jews, 1; the offence they look at his mean and humble appearance, 2; and the contempt with which they treated him, 3. The prophet then shows that the Messiah was to suffer for sins not his own; but that our iniquities were laid on him, and the punishment of them exacted of him, which is the meritorious cause of our obtaining pardon and salvation, 4-6. He shows the meekness and placid submission with which he suffered a violent and unjust death, with the circumstances of his dying with the wicked, and being buried with the great, 7-9; and that, in consequence of his atonement, death, resurrection, and intercession, he should procure pardon and salvation to the multitudes, insure increasing prosperity to his Church, and ultimately, triumph over all his foes, 10, 11. This chapter contains a beautiful summary of the most peculiar and distinguishing doctrines of Christianity. ■ John xii. 38; Rom. x. 16. Or, doctrine. — Heb. hearing. Chap. xi. 1.—Chap. lii. 14; Mark ix. 12.—g Psa. xxii. 6; d Chap. li. 9; Rom. i. 16; 1 Cor. i. 18. NOTES ON CHAP. LIII. That this chapter speaks of none but JESUS must be evident to every unprejudiced reader who has ever heard the history of his sufferings and death. The Jews have endeavoured to apply it to their sufferings in captivity; but, alas for their cause! they can make nothing out in this way. Allowing that it belongs to our blessed Lord, (and the best men and the best scholars agree in this,) theǹ who can read verses 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, without being convinced that his death was a vicarious sacrifice for the sins of mankind? On the first and second verses of this chapter I have received the following remarks from an unknown hand. “Verse 1. Who hath believed our report?] The report of the prophets, of John the Baptist, and Christ's own report of himself. The Jews did not receive the report, and for this reason he was not manifested to them as the promised Messiah. He came unto his own, but his own received him not.' Before the FATHER he grew up as a tender plant: but to the Jews he was as a root out of a dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.' "Verse 2. For he shall grow up] Supposes something to have preceded, as it might be asked, what or who shall 'grow up before him,' &c. As the translation now stands, no correct answer can be given to this question. The translation then is wrong, the connexion broken, and the sense obscured. yi zeroa, translated the arm, from the root zara. 1. To sow, or plant; also seed, &c. 2. The limb which reaches from the shoulder to the hand, called the arm; or more properly beginning at the shoulder and ending at the elbow. The translator has given the wrong sense of the word. It would be very improper to say, the arm of the Lord should grow up before him; but by taking the word in its former sense, the connexion and metaphor would be restored, and the true sense given to the text. zera signifies, not only the seed of herbs, but children, offspring, or posterity. The same word we find Gen. .chap. xlix. 7. iii. 15, where CHRIST is the Seed promised. See also Gen. xxii. 17, 18; xxvi. 4; xxviii. 14. Hence the SEED of the woman, the SEED promised to the patriarchs is, according to Isaiah, the Seed of the Lord, the Child born, and the Son given; and according to St. John, the Son of God, the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.' then, in this place, should be understood to mean 'JESUS CHRIST, and him alone. To speak here of the manifestation of the arm or power of God would be irregular; but to suppose the text to speak of the manifestation of Jesus Christ would be very proper, as the whole of the chapter is written concerning him; particularly his humiliation and sufferings, and the reception he should meet with from the Jewish nation. "The first verse of this chapter is quoted John xii. 38, and the former part of the same verse Rom. x. 16.. But no objection of importance can be brought forward from either of these quotations against the above explanation, as they are quoted to show the unbelief of the Jews in not receiving Christ as the promised Messiah," He hath no form nor comeliness" He hath no form nor any beauty"] Oux soos autw, oude ağıwpa ἵνα ειδωμεν αυτον· ουδε θεωρία, ἵνα επιθυμωμεν αυτον. "He hath no form, nor any beauty, that we should regard him; nor is his countenance such that we should desire him." Symmachus; the only one of the ancients that has translated it rightly. Verse 3. Acquainted with grief] For y" vidua, familiar with grief, eight MSS. and one edition have y veyada, and knowing grief; the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate read it y veyodea. We hid as it were our faces from him-" As one that hideth his face from us"] For no uchemaster, four MSS. (two ancient) have no uchemastir, one MS. v umastir. For panim, two MSS. have 5 panaiv; so likewise the Septuagint and Vulgate. Mourners covered up the lower, part of their faces, and their heads, 2 Sam. xv. 30; Ezek. xxiv. Olymp. XVII. 1. with grief: and we hid as it Numa Pompilii, were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed R. Roman., 4. him not. he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But he was "wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. Heb. iv. 15. Or, he hid as it were his face from us. Heb. as a hiding of faces from him, or from us.- John i. 10, 11. Matt. viii. 17; Heb. ix. 28; 1 Pet. ii. 24.- D Or, tormented. Rom. iv. 25; 1 Cor. xv. 3; 1 Pet. iii. 18. 1 Pet. u. 24. and his unjust condemnation. A. M. cir. 3292. 6 All we like sheep have gone B. C. cir. 712. astray; we have turned every one Olymp. XVII. 1. to his own way; and the LORD hath Numa Pompilii, laid on him the iniquity of us all. R. Roman., 4. cir. annum 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: "he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. 8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the Heb. bruise. Psa. cxix. 176; 1 Pet. ii. 25. Heb. hath made the iniquities of us all to meet on him. Matt. xxvi. 63; xxvii. 12, 14'; Mark xiv. 61; xv. 5; 1 Pet. ii. 23. Acts viii. 32. Or, He was taken away by distress and judgment; but, &c. Dan. ix. 26. on all mankind, diverged from Divine justice to the east, west, north, and south, were deflected from them, and converged in him. So the Lord hath caused to meet in him the punishment due to the iniquities of ALL. 17; and lepers were commanded by the law, Lev. to meet in him the iniquities of us all. He was the xii. 45, to cover their upper lip. From which cir- subject on which all the rays collected on the focal cumstance it seems that the Vulgate, Aquila, Symma-point fell. These fiery rays, which should have fallen chus, and the Jewish commentators have taken the word y nagua, stricken, in the next verse, as meaning stricken with the leprosy: εv αon oνra, Sym.; apnuevov, Aq.; leprosum, Vulg. So my old MS. Bible. I will insert the whole passage as curious:— There is not schap to him, ne fairnesse, And we seegen him, and he was not of sigte, And we desiriden him dispisid; and the last of men: Man of souaris and witing instrmitie; And as hid his cheer and despisid; Wherfor ne we settiden bi him: Verse 8. And who shall declare his generation"And his manner of life who would declare"] A learned friend has communicated to me the following passages from the Mishna, and the Gemara of Babylon, as leading to a satisfactory explication of this difficult place. It is said in the former, that before any one was punished for a capital crime, proclamation was made before the prisoner by the public crier, in these words: zachoth yabo vayilmad alaiv, "Whosoever knows any col mi shioda lo כל מי שיודע לו זכות יבא וילמד עליו perili our seekiesse he toke and out soreuis the batte And we helden him as leprous and smpten of God, and meekid; He forgoth wounded is for our wickednesse, The discipline of our pese upon him, And with his wanne wound we ben helid. Verse 4. Surely he hath borne our griefs-" Surely our infirmities he hath borne"] Seven MSS. (two ancient) and three editions have 1 cholayeyny in the plural number. And carried our sorrows- "And our sorrows, he hath carried them"] Seventeen MSS. (two ancient) of Dr. Kennicott's, two of De Rossi's, and two editions have the word hu, he, before sebalam, 'carrieth them," in the text; four other MSS. have it in the margin. This adds force to the sense, and elegance to the. construction. Verse 5. The chastisement of our peace-" The chastisement by which our peace is effected"] Twenty-one MSS. and six editions have the word fully and regularly expressed, 1 shelomeynu; pacificationum nostrarum, our pacification;" that by which we are brought into a state of peace and favour with God. Ar. Montan. 66 Verse 6. The iniquity of us all.] For y avon, "iniquity," the ancient interpreters read y avonoth, iniquities," plural; and so the Vulgate in MS. Blanchini. And the Lord hath 13 yn hiphgia bo, caused 66 thing of this man's innocence, let him come and declare it." Tract. Sanhedrim. Surenhus. Part iv. p. 233. On which passage the Gemara of Babylon adds, that "before the death of Jesus this proclamation was made for forty days; but no defence could be found." On which words Lardner observes: "It is truly surprising to see such falsities, contrary to well-known facts." Testimonies, Vol. I. p. 198. The report is certainly false; but this false report is founded on the supposition that there was such a custom, and so far confirms the account given from the Mishna. The Mishna was composed in the middle of the second century according to Prideaux; Lardner ascribes it to the year of Christ 180. Casaubon has a quotation from Maimonides which farther confirms this account-Exercitat. in Baronii Annales, Art. lxxvi. Ann. 34. Num. 119. Auctor est Maimonides in Perek xiii. ejus libri ex opere Jad, solitum fieri, ut cum reus, sententiam mortis passus, a loco judicii exibat ducendus ad supplicium, præcederet ipsum puğ, præco; et hæc verba diceret: Ille exit occidendus morte illa, quia transgressus est transgressione illa, in loco illo, tempore illo, et sunt ejus rei testes ille et ille. Qui noverit aliquid ad ejus innocentiam probandam, veniat, et loquatur pro eo.,“ It was customary when sentence of death was passed upon a criminal, and he was led out from the seat of |